CHQ Chairman Richard A. Viguerie regularly reminds conservatives that the greatest impediment to governing America according to conservative principles is not the Democrats; it is the big government establishment Republicans. And the only way to get to the political Promised Land is to replace the current big government establishment Republican “leaders” with principled limited government constitutional conservatives.

One of our prime opportunities to add a principled limited government constitutional conservative to the ranks of conservatives in Congress is the open seat in West Virginia’s Congressional District 2 where conservative Alex Mooney is leading a crowded field of contenders in the Republican Primary.

According to a profile of Mooney by Powerline’s Paul Mirengoff, “Based on the fundraising numbers, there are three major candidates in the Republican primary: Mooney (who leads in fundraising), Charlotte Lane, and Ron Walters. Lane and Walters are moderates from the Charleston area in the western part of the state. Alex is a conservative from the eastern portion.”

Mirengoff handicapped the race this way: Lane, age 66, is a Charleston attorney who served on U.S International Trade Commission under President George W. Bush. Before that, she served in the House of Delegates on and off.

Lane has supported gun control and abortion rights in the past, according to an endorsement she received from the Charleston Gazette in 1996. Alex, by the way, has been endorsed by the Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund. He has also been endorsed by Citizens United Political Victory Fund.

Walters, age 29, is the son of a state delegate. He was a student until 2010. Since then, he has been a financial consultant.

According to West Virginians Against Law Suit Abuse, most of the contributions to Walters campaign have come from personal injury lawsuit interests. We certainly don’t need another congressman who is indebted to the trial lawyers bar.

Like Senator Ted Cruz, Mooney’s conservatism extends much further back than his career in politics. As Will Allen detailed in a profile of Mooney for National Review Online, Mooney’s mother and her family were early opponents of Castro and were imprisoned after the Bay of Pigs (a fiasco that leads her son to dismiss JFK with the one-line verdict, “weak on foreign policy”). Her flight from Cuba eventually led her to the Catholic University of America and to Vincent Mooney, an ROTC student of Irish descent who would earn a Bronze Star in Vietnam and become Alex Mooney’s father.

Mooney is leading the fundraising battle, and has already been endorsed by the Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund. He has also been endorsed by Citizens United Political Victory Fund, so we figure it is only a matter of time until the establishment cottons on to the fact that Alex Mooney is going to win the West Virginia 2 primary and starts to gang up on him.

Alex Mooney is a “boat rocker” like Ted Cruz that will stick to his principles – even when it means taking on his own Party when its leaders forget who elected them.

We urge you to help Alex Mooney win the West Virginia Congressional District 2 Republican Primary by going to his website through this link and contributing to his campaign.